With Xcode and interface builder iOS Simulator gives us a way to test our application without having an iPhone handy. It does not remove the need for an iPhone because there are certain elements that should be tested only with the device itself, but this simulator adds to your convenience.

However, there are certain drawbacks of a simulator too for example it does not have a camera. It may not be an issue, but it may become an issue if your device needs a camera. Secondly the simulator would not be having an accelerometer.

That part is usually used by the iPhone to detect the position it is held in. These are minor issues, but if you have an application that needs to go from portrait to landscape mode or you have an application that is controlled by tilting then you would be needing an accelerometer. It is built into the iPhone simulator that you cannot change the orientation.

iOS Simulator Guidelines

Follow the below mentioned steps to learn the usage of an iOS simulator.

Step 1: Make a new project in Xcode because like interface builder the iOS simulator is generally not started on its own. You should launch it when you actually need it.

Step 2: Select a view based application and save it by the name of simulator. Now if you want to see the simulator you should make sure that you see a drop down menu by the name of simulator 3.0 at the left hand corner. Using this menu you can choose between the device or the simulator.

Step 3: You should select simulator from menu and then click the option Build and go. This option will detect that a device is not connected. The simulator is launched and you will be able to see a blank device.

Step 4: You can use the hardware menu because it has options that allow you to turn the device left or right. You can even use the Shake gesture. Apart from this toggle in status bar option can be used if you want to see how your application looks when the status bar becomes double its size. Then a simulate memory warning will occur.

Step 5: You can even get your applications off the same way you do it on an iPhone. You have to hold the application down until the machine adopts the shaky mode. Then you get a message and you select delete option. The other option is that you can visit the iPhone simulator menu and select Reset Content and Settings and that resets your application quickly.

This allows you to test your application quickly because copying them to your device even when you have your device connected will take you a lot more time and compilation is required especially for that device.

The above tutorial will guide how you can use an iOS simulator in an effective way. However, the requirement is that you should read and understand the tutorial well in order to implement it the correct way and make use of most the knowledge that is transferred to you through this tutorial.